Lakeland Lowdownhttp://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com
The down-low on the Land of LakesFri, 29 Apr 2016 22:16:08 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5When a Hallmark card won’t say just how terrible you arehttp://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11487/when-a-hallmark-card-wont-say-just-how-terrible-you-are/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11487/when-a-hallmark-card-wont-say-just-how-terrible-you-are/#respondFri, 29 Apr 2016 16:10:09 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11487Politicians are subject to a lot of report cards. Political action groups of a particular size or larger can almost be guaranteed to rank the records of their political friends and enemies. Real people may only be aware of these special interest scorecards during election time when they’re used as evidence on direct mailers, plastered in bold Impact font, slightly askew, across a black and white photo of the targeted candidate sloppily consuming a chili sandwich. If the results of… Read More »

]]>http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11487/when-a-hallmark-card-wont-say-just-how-terrible-you-are/feed/0Honeymooning in Lakelandhttp://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11483/honeymooning-in-lakeland/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11483/honeymooning-in-lakeland/#respondThu, 14 Apr 2016 17:11:51 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11483Here’s one I get a lot: “How’s Tony doing?” referring to City Manager Tony Delgado, Mr. “customer-centric,” Mr. Macromanager, Mr. “accountability and responsibility equal to the pay grade.” Tomorrow commissioners will give their six-month appraisals of his work. I suspect he’ll receive high marks. They’re’ll be a story on it. It’ll probably start with something like “Six months in and everything’s fine, commissioners told their new city manager Friday.” The addendum to the common question I get is usually something… Read More »

]]>http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11483/honeymooning-in-lakeland/feed/0On power and governance, peaks and averageshttp://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11472/on-power-and-governance-peaks-and-averages/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11472/on-power-and-governance-peaks-and-averages/#respondWed, 16 Dec 2015 14:07:48 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11472Lakeland Electric is taking McIntosh Unit 1 out to the farm where natural gas power generators can frolic freely with others of their kind. A Big Rock Candy Mountain for industrial equipment. It’s time for the 44 year old to go, General Manager Joel Ivy said, seeking approval to send the steam turbine generator into retirement. Its old, it lacks pollution controls, it’s expensive to run, needing way more heat (and therefore fuel) to create a kilowatt-hour. Each year since… Read More »

]]>http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11472/on-power-and-governance-peaks-and-averages/feed/0To Utility Committee: ‘What would you say you do here?’http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11469/to-utility-committee-what-would-you-say-you-do-here/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11469/to-utility-committee-what-would-you-say-you-do-here/#respondThu, 10 Dec 2015 14:17:18 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11469“Are we just here to be eye candy?” Utility Committee member Daryl Johnson asked Monday at the group’s monthly meeting, expressing some skepticism about the board’s real purpose. Are the appointed members there to vet decisions affecting Lakeland’s largest government unit and the people’s largest investment, or are they window dressing, a chance for the government to point at the board as an example of collaborative, citizen-inclusive decision making while not really having to make the effort? The question came… Read More »

]]>http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11469/to-utility-committee-what-would-you-say-you-do-here/feed/0We’re back. It might get weird.http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11458/were-back-it-might-get-weird/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11458/were-back-it-might-get-weird/#respondWed, 02 Dec 2015 13:00:57 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11458Grab your shovels. Lakeland Lowdown is making a racket in its casket. In it’s newly undeaded form, consider this space a combination of B-sides, inside baseball nonsense and musings on the beauty and absurdity of local government. Here’s kind of a fun one to start from the lame duck with nothin’ to lose and a quick draw quack, Commissioner Keith Merritt, who is enjoying his last month on the commission. He recently pitched the idea of hiring aides for the… Read More »

]]>http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11458/were-back-it-might-get-weird/feed/0The Lakeland City Commission Agenda Just In Timehttp://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11437/the-lakeland-city-commission-agenda-just-in-time/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11437/the-lakeland-city-commission-agenda-just-in-time/#respondMon, 07 Jul 2014 12:06:47 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11437Better late than never, this agenda for today's Lakeland City Commission meeting is.

I made the post last week, when the city's agenda was released. But set the wrong date for publishing. My bad.

As you probably know by know, city officials release an electronic agenda every Wednesday before a Monday commission meeting. The city’s PDF version has built-in links to access background information for agenda items. The problem: those links only work properly on Window’s Internet Explorer.

Here’s the fix, done for every Lakeland City Commission meeting, on this blog: a text-based agenda with links that work on Google Chrome, Firefox, and a Mac computer.

All seven commissioners have said they support assessing the fire fee with a small reduction in the property tax rate that combined will bring in more revenue. But how much commissioners will rely on new revenue to cover the projected shortfall is still unclear. Three commissioners are opposed to using the city's $10 million in general fund reserves to balance the budget for the fiscal year that begins in October.

If they do only use new revenue from the fire fee to balance the budget, it would be the equivalent of a property tax rate increase of… Read More »

]]>http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11427/proposed-fire-fee-could-be-equivalent-of-36-percent-tax-hike/feed/0Lakeland City Officials: NOBAY Village Development Deal 90 Percent Donehttp://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11398/lakeland-city-officials-nobay-village-development-deal-90-percent-done-2/
http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/11398/lakeland-city-officials-nobay-village-development-deal-90-percent-done-2/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 11:00:17 +0000http://lakelandlowdown.blogs.theledger.com/?p=11398The development deal between the developers of NOBAY Village and the city of Lakeland is 90 percent done, city officials say.
Lakeland-based Broadway Real Estate Services plans to build the 100,000 square-foot, $12.5 million, four-story, mixed-use development that includes 75 to 85 apartments and 12,000 square feet of retail space on the city-owned Bay Street parking lot.

Broadway President Matt Clark wouldn't confirm the city officials' estimation, but confirmed his company is still on track to meet a June 2016 construction completion date.

"We're making great progress and negotiating with the city staff and the city attorney's office on our final developer's agreement… Read More »

Some commissioners have complained in recent months that they were not kept updated on the city's handling of the scandals over the last year that plagued LPD and the city. This time, they got the news first.

"I did not want you to be caught off guard in the event you read and/or see any related (media) stories regarding the matter," Thomas wrote.

Here's the full email:

Mayor & City Commissioners,

I wanted to inform you of the completion of the FDLE separation paperwork associated with former Chief Womack's separation from the City which received some media coverage late last month. As you will see, I have completed my review of the requirements associated with our responsibilities as an employer of sworn… Read More »